Many types of equipment require interaction with a skilled operator to perform the function of the equipment. For example, the medical field uses various types of equipment to screen and diagnose illness in patients, who may be humans or animals. Interaction is necessary, because parameters and settings particular to the patient must be entered before the procedure can begin. Then, after a phase of the procedure has finished, results must be examined, and possibly parameters changed, to determine if the phase must be repeated before moving on to the next phase. The next phase itself might require parameter changes or action by the patient before proceeding.
One type of such equipment is an MRI scanner. MRI systems conventionally require an on-site technician to run the equipment and interact with the patient. Scanning parameters that typically must be controlled include scan sequence selection, field of view, slice thickness, number of slices, and number of excitations. Further, the technician typically positions the patient in the scanner, places an imaging coil on the patient, and interacts with the patient in order to determine his/her comfort level. Conventionally, the technician views the scan to determine its quality and, if necessary, adjusts one or more parameters and re-runs the scan. When the scan is completed to the technician's satisfaction, the technician will prepare the images for filming by, for example, adjusting brightness and contrast, and panning and zooming selected images. The technician might run several scans, each targeting a different view of the patient, and can prepare the images after scanning each view, or in a batch after all views have been scanned.
This is a labor-intensive procedure, and contributes to the high cost of MRI scanning and diagnosis. Some hospitals are large and require more than one machine; conventionally, these hospitals must have a technician present at each machine. Other hospitals are small, and have a single machine, but don't use it enough for it to be cost-effective to have a full-time technician present at the machine.
Conventional techniques for MRI scanner operation are performed locally. The ability exists to send images over the Internet and other networks, but no capability to actually operate the scanner remotely. Using present systems, a local technician operates the scanner and the images are displayed locally. Additionally, the images can be sent via the Internet or local area network to a remote display system. The remote display system is used only for displaying, windowing, and archiving images and data, but doesn't have the ability to manipulate or operate the scanner, and does not monitor the local scanning area.
It would be advantageous for a large hospital to have centralized control for all the MRI scanners. It would also be advantageous for a single technician to have the ability to control a number of MRI scanners at a respective number of small hospitals. Alternatively, it would be advantageous for a single, or a few, MRI scanners to be located at a central location and shared by a number of small hospitals, so that each hospital can have a local technician to control scanning and imaging from the hospital.
However, due to difficulties in controlling medical diagnostic equipment, the number of parameters that must be set, the need for interaction with patients, the complicated nature of the process, and the lengthy set-up required for a scan process, remote scanner control has not been realized.